Watch the New Backstory: Blake Shelton Thursday on GAC

It was just three short years ago that rising country star Blake Shelton sat down to tell his story on GAC’s Backstory: Blake Shelton. Content with his professional and personal life at the time, Shelton summed it all up saying, “For the first time ever, I’m not having to make a comeback. I’ve been able to make this last for 10 years now and I’m looking forward to another 20 or 30.”

What a difference 36 months makes. Blake’s remarkable career trajectory includes a hit TV series, five CMA Awards incuding Entertainer of the Year, three ACM Awards, multiple GRAMMY nominations, hit singles and of course the love of his life, wife Miranda Lambert. Blake took time to talk about his rapid-fire success in a completely updated Backstory: Blake Shelton, a 90-minute episode premiering Thursday, November 22, 5:00p.m./Eastern on GAC.

Stepping up to share their Blake Shelton tales are Trace Adkins, “The Voice” co-star Adam Levine and show creator Mark Burnett, Blake’s mother and sister and of course, Miranda Lambert. Blake’s father passed earlier this year but is featured in footage from the ’09 episode.

“The very first time I heard about The Voice, I told my manager, ‘Nope, no way in hell I’m doing that,’” Blake recalls. “They kept asking and the minute I heard Christina Aguilera was in the show I said, ‘I’m in.’”

“Blake’s a great singer but he’s also so funny and a great personality,” says show creator Mark Burnett. “It’s almost like he’s a country version of Dean Martin or something.”

While his spot on NBC’s top-rated program The Voice transformed him into a national celebrity, Blake has never strayed from the job most important to him –- country music. And among his three recent CMA wins this year, Entertainer, Male Vocalist and Song, he’s especially moved by his Song of the Year prize for “Over You,” a hit for his wife.

“We were flipping through the channels and my Backstory was rerunning on GAC and it hit that spot when my dad was talking about my brother Richie (who passed in ’91) and he said, ‘You don’t get over that, nobody does, you learn to live with it,’” Shelton says. “We turned it off and started talking about Richie and started writing this song.”

“It was a cool moment to share with him because we’d never really talked about it,” Miranda says. “He said, ‘I don’t think I can get through it every night on stage, I’d rather you have it.” Not only did Blake and Miranda share that Song of the Year prize, they again took home the male and female categories – both CMA history making award wins. “It’s awesome,” says Miranda. “I mean who doesn’t want to be Johnny and June? But I don’t want it to define us because that’s when you’re going to lose your regular self.”

“My life, my goals, my dreams from the time I was born was to be a popular country music artist,” Blake explains. “That’s who I am, that’s what I want to do with my life and that’s what I am going to protect.”